Just reciting plots can make Southland sound like a soap opera, and in some ways that's what ensemble shows are. But this one is more than that.

But if Ugly Americans comes with a message, it is at least equally determined to just be funny, and at that task, it frequently succeeds.

Treme, created by "Wire" mastermind David Simon, may not ultimately get to the level of those others, because it's going to take a while to sort out the characters and lay down the themes. It also looks to have a deliberate pace, and it doesn't seem to be setting up for a lot of blood-and-guts action, so it may end up attracting a more cerebral crowd.

It's now even easier to get so caught up in the dramas that you can forget this show is really funny.

A new ABC Family series built around four teenage friends and an ominous hint of supernatural forces that mean no good, makes most popular vampire romances look anemic.

It's unavoidable that True Blood will fall into some of the same dramas as other vampire shows. It's just got sharper teeth.

If the premise is somewhat forced, it sets up a situation with enough comic potential to sustain Hot in Cleveland indefinitely.

Unlike shows that rely on flamboyant judges for much of their color, Top Chef has mostly risen and fallen on the personality and skills of the contestants. So it's off to a good start this time around.

TNT's new Memphis Beat has a great soundtrack and a pretty good cop drama in between.

There are no actual fires involved, and several key scenes are played in near-silence. The emotional intensity, though, rips right through the screen.

To be as much fun as it strives to be, Warehouse 13 can't be just a cop show with a gimmick. It needs to make the gimmick interesting and fun. Season one was promising and season two seems to be staying on track.

If you enjoy following complex machinations, however, and enjoy watching smart TV characters try to figure them out, Rubicon is your ticket.

This requires commitment, it requires paying attention and it has few cartoonish interludes to give the audience a breather. It also reminds us the value and satisfaction we can find in a complex production executed well.

While some of their "family values" are perverse and illegal, most are rooted in the same principles embraced by the straightest arrows in town. That's what makes them more than motorcycle thugs and makes their show worth the discomfort it sometimes takes to ride with it.

[Executive producer Shawn] Ryan's a good juggler, especially when he can work at a cable pace. He likes to take a moment and roll it around in his hands. He's helped by first-rate chemistry between the show's two main dudes, and a uniformly strong supporting cast.

"Fun" hasn't been a big part of her job description, but she may have found some of it here.

It all adds up to a dizzying series of cross-plots and so many brief and often odd alliances that some viewers may wonder if they've wandered into "Survivor." On the positive side, it's all done with standard Glee fun, the tongue never far from the cheek, and it's punctuated with upbeat musical numbers.

Spy dramas sometimes get too enamored of their own twists, subplots and dark details, but this one never becomes impenetrable.

So they mirror the plight of way too many Americans today, and while that isn't good news for the unemployed, it does give this Apprentice a bit more edge.

The best new cop drama of a TV season that has more police than a presidential motorcade. Blue Bloods doesn't have the best time slot on TV, but it's got some of the strongest characters and performances.

The game has always been better and more joyous than many of the people who played it. "The Tenth Inning," like its predecessor, makes that point as cleanly as a line-drive single to left-center.

Tuesday night by plunging its characters deeper into a web of crisscrossing dramas that suggest the law and politics ultimately come down to soap operas. Whether it's true or not, The Good Wife makes the theory entertaining to explore.

A viewer who knew nothing of the earlier incarnations could come to this one and find it immediately engaging, like a good modern police buddy-team drama.

The new guest cast is uniformly solid....The whole show is now on its own for the first time, since the previous two seasons were adapted from an Israeli series. That series ran for only two years, so this new In Treatment will have to work from scratch. What it has scratched out so far is impressive.

The show still occasionally talks about this stuff more than real-life guys probably would. But mostly it lets the action speak for itself. Men of a Certain Age is aging well.

Doubtless there always will be some of the Gen. Patton mentality, that a soldier with no physical wounds must be "yellow" if he or she can't just shake it off. Wartorn argues, powerfully, that blaming the victim is not our finest hour.

Whether the people here are fifth-generation circus or they ran away to join it, their lives make for a good tale.

Moguls & Movie Stars has been assembled with obvious care, using a wide range of illustrative material and charming interviews with surviving major characters, descendants and historians.